BBC putting 'favourable gloss' on financial crisis, say Lib Dems

The BBC has been accused of pandering to the Government by avoiding the word "recession" in favour of ministers' preferred term "the downturn".

By Stephen Adams

7:10PM BST 23 Oct 2008

Corporation managers chose the softer expression as the title for a day devoted to the economic situation on Friday, even though many experienced commentators believe the financial system is experiencing the worst shock since 1929.

The decision is wrongly putting a "favourable gloss" on the economic outlook, according to the Liberal Democrats.

Jeremy Hill, the editor of the BBC's business and economics unit, said the title 'The Downturn' had been chosen because Britain was not yet officially in a recession.

Mr Hill was making his comments as he denied a report that BBC broadcasters had been banned from using the term 'crisis'.

He responded on his BBC blog on Thursday: "It's reported today that the BBC has banned any reference to the term 'crisis'. Er, no, we haven't. It's true that tomorrow we're having a day devoted to taking the temperature of the economy around the UK and how it's affecting people, which we're calling "The Downturn".

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"But that doesn't mean we're losing our financial crisis branding when we cover further bank or financial shocks and indeed we'll be using it even tomorrow on our international coverage."

He continued: "So, why don't we label our day tomorrow "The Recession" and be done with it? Simply because we may well be in a recession but we won't get any official confirmation of that for a while yet. A recession is two quarters of negative growth and as soon as we're in one you'll hear it from us."

But Jeremy Brown, the Lib Dems' shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, replied: "The Prime Minister himself has conceded that Britain is in recession and that the economy will shrink.

"The BBC is a public service broadcaster and it should not seek to put a favourable gloss on what is a very bleak economic outlook."